Stephanie Dustin-January blogpost

• What is invasive curiosity and how can we hold space to best model positive curiosity while supporting classrooms where risk taking is needed and encouraged?

As teachers we want our students to be curious, and we want to create a classroom environment where curiosity is encouraged and valued.  Invasive curiosity crosses a line and is disrespectful. Educating around invasive curiosity is important to do. Teaching students that it is their responsibility to learn about cultures, and it is not the responsibility of the people of those cultures to teach them, and that learning about culture is interesting and expands their world are all important to do. Teaching about nuance can be useful so that students understand the difference between curiosity and invasive curiosity and how that difference can change in different situations. It is also important to create an environment where students feel comfortable, valued and feel free to share their personal stories. By students listening to their peers’ stories they will learn about cultures different from their own. Finally, by reading stories with examples of invasive curiosity may help students understand when questions may be considered invasive.

The book Tomatoes in my Lunchbox by Costantia Manoli  has a question that could be interpreted as invasive questioning, but in this instance the question leads to a genuine friendship. (Tomatoes in my Lunchbox is a Chickadee book from this year. It is not from our list.)

Books are an ideal way to learn about cultures and are a natural vehicle for classrooms to learn together.

As a teacher my focus is on creating and supporting a classroom environment where students feel valued and heard. Hopefully that environment would afford some natural discussions where students can learn from each other. One question we had from Tomatoes in my Lunchbox was “Please share the story of your name”(if you don’t know the story this is a great question to ask your grownup). Another question we had was “What is a food which tastes like home?” These questions led to discussions of cultures in a natural and respectful way, which in turn helped educate my students about different cultures and races. My goal is creating a classroom where students are respectful, curious and embrace the belief that learning about cultures expands their world and that that is a good thing.

• Reflecting on the discussions we have had in our PINE Project Workshops, how can this month’s SEL Connection about responsible decision making be integrated into classroom settings? Feel free to specifically use the picture books we read this month, but do not feel as though this is your only choice. You get to decide how to integrate these ideas into your student’s learning.

     “Curiosity is a significant skill in creating a responsible decision maker” and curiosity is a quality that is encouraged in a lifelong learner. In the learning commons a focus of our curriculum is on being a lifelong learner and a critical thinker. This is taught through research skills, digital literacy and through literary analysis. Many of the books used have a Social and Emotional Learning focus. 

Using a book like The Suitcase and asking open ended questions help students learn to think critically. Some examples of open ended questions for The Suitcase would be 

Why do the animals open the suitcase? 

How can the relationship be repaired between the animals? 

How angry would you be if someone had gone through your stuff and how would you handle that anger?

When the students answer the questions they learn to support their answer with evidence.

Another aspect that we focus on in the learning commons, and our school as a whole, is our core values and being safe, respectful and responsible. The core values we concentrate on are unity, empathy, perseverance, love of learning, honesty and integrity, kindness, hope and growth mindset. SEL books are ideal for teaching these qualities and understanding these qualities are necessary to being a responsible decision maker.